Eddie Carmichael
Eddie Carmichael is a character in the Wild Cards series of books. History Eddie's card turned in the same outbreak that claimed the life of his mother. While she drew a black queen, Eddie survived and became a hideous joker, and then his father died from a stroke a few years later. Fortunately for Eddie, one of his teachers noticed his artistic talent and encouraged him to progress it, and eventually Eddie was able to make a modest living as a freelance artist drawing cartoons for postcards and occasionally taking on jobs as a police sketch artist at Fort Freak. This latter role brought him into contact with Lupo, an alcoholic joker who had witnessed a kidnapping one night. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, the kidnappers were taking jokers to supply a joker fight club, and as a result Lupo's observation soon made him a target. With police resources unavailable to provide any protection, Eddie took it upon himself to use his power to keep an eye on Lupo. This became direct intervention when the kidnappers made a grab for the alcoholic and Eddie was able to use his cartoons to guide him out of harm's way. Wild Card Traits Carmichael is a joker with a stunted, unattractive body, but he also possesses a power to will his cartoons to life and send them out as proxies. His apparitions have very little mass and are relatively weak when they form, although they also have useful abilities for Carmichael to draw upon if needed. Eddie controls his creations directly, seeing what they see, and hearing what they hear. He can easily maintain control over one, and controlling two at once is possible, but tiresome. Only on rare occasions does Eddie attempt to control three at once, and even then his control often slips from one while he focuses on the others. Dismissing one of his creations when it is a long way from his body gives him a painful headache, so Eddie will always try to bring them home before erasing them. Gary Glitch is a twitchy little cartoon with a phenomenal leaping ability. At four feet tall, Gary has big ears, skinny little arms and legs, and is prone to bounding up fire escapes and scurrying across rooftops. The Gulloon is a silent, seven foot giant with a small head, a huge nose, a large lower body, and bulbous arms and legs. Despite this size, the Gulloon can squeeze through gaps as small as an inch. LaVerne VaVoom is another of Eddie's creations. Mister Nice Guy is roughly humanoid with legs that are ten feet long. Zip the Hamster is small and quick, and speaks in a high-pitched rapid squeak. Appearance Eddie's head, one arm, more than half his torso, and both legs, are deformed lumps of flesh with lumpy pink skin and tufts of black hair sprouting irregularly. His bones are similarly warped and force him to live much of his life in a very expensive chair adjusted to fit his misshapen form. In addition to his obvious physical deformities, he also has a pronounced body odour that he can do little to mask. Personality Eddie's wild card has made him something of an introvert. His general unattractiveness has rendered any sexual activity largely impossible, and so his power to view the world through his cartoons has led him into the life of a Peeping Tom. At night he will send out Gary Glitch to spy on others from rooftops, or one of his larger creations might find a discrete place to observe from street level, but beyond his voyeuristic tendencies Eddie still has a good sense of right and wrong and has been known to assist others against truly evil parties. Selected Reading * - "Cry Wolf"